 Whereas the basilica, a long aisled hall with an apse at one end, was the most common form in the West, a more compact centralised style became predominant in the East.These churches were in origin "martyria" focused on the tombs of the saints—specifically, the martyrs who had died during the persecutions, which only fully ended with the conversion of the Emperor Constantine.They copied pagan tombs and were roofed over by a dome which symbolised heaven.